Appropriations subcommittee boosts OSHA funding

A House subcommittee appropriations bill proposes increasing(.pdf file) OSHA's fiscal year 2011 budget by $21 million from the current fiscal year.

The House Appropriations Committee's Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee would provide OSHA a budget of $580 million for FY 2011, a $7 million boost from the agency's $573 million request. The funding would return OSHA's enforcement capacity to 2001 levels, according to a statement(.pdf file) from Rep. Dave Obey (D-WI), the subcommittee chairman.

The bill includes a requirement that OSHA establish a standard addressing the safe handling of natural gas -- a response to recent fatal explosions. It also provides $368 million in funding for the Mine Safety and Health Administration -- $7 million more than the FY 2011 request -- and $14 million for the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission ($1 million more than requested).

Post a comment to this article

Safety+Health welcomes comments that promote respectful dialogue. Please stay on topic. Comments that contain personal attacks, profanity or abusive language – or those aggressively promoting products or services – will be removed. We reserve the right to determine which comments violate our comment policy. (Anonymous comments are welcome; merely skip the “name” field in the comment box. An email address is required but will not be included with your comment.)

Name

Email(will not be displayed)*

Title

Comment*

Report Abusive Comment

Thank you for helping us to improve our forums. Is this comment offensive? Please tell us why.